New user profile functionality might indicate that Google+ is close to getting brand profiles (aka business profiles).

We know that back in July Google began building a set of “non-user entities” (companies, brands, etc.) who were selected to help with the setup and testing of brand profiles; Ford and MTV were specifically mentioned. For a short period of time you could apply to be in the test group, but the “Google+ Entity Profile Application” has since been disabled. Could Google be close to rolling out their version of brand pages? +Steve Rubel shared a video today that shows some new features already active on users profile pages that might indicate the answer is yes. [Read more…]